Book #1: Acadia.TOCPart 6 -- The Deportation of the AcadiansTOCCh. 11 --
"Grand Pré, Part I."

On September the 15th Winslow verified a count of the local Acadians. He was to incorporate this count into a reporting letter which he sent along to Governor Lawrence at Halifax.1 This report has come down to us and shows the total number of Acadians with which Winslow was to deal, to be, 2793 people. The document set forth the names of all the males in the area, viz.. Minas (excluding Piziquid) through which run the rivers: Pereaux, Habitant, Canard, St. Antoine (Cornwallis, these days) and the Gaspereau. On it, run the names, page after page. The more common surnames to be found are: Aucoin, Boudrot, Commeau, Dupuis, Granger, Hebert, Landry, LeBlanc, Melanson, and Terriot. Listed are the names of 483 men. From it, we can see that there were in these districts: 387 married women, 527 sons, 576 daughters and 820 "old & infirmed." A count of the live-stock was also set out: 1131 bullocks, 1422 cows, 1959 young cattle, 7210 sheep, 3827 hogs and 419 horses.2

Winslow had ordered a table to be set up in the middle of the Church. At the desk sat, amply backed with armed men in their red coats, the bewigged 53 year old commander with "double chin, smooth forehead, arched eyebrows, close powdered wig, and round, rubicund face; and there, now at 3 o'clock, there is a congregation of peasants, simply clad, tanned faces, anxious and intent. A motion was made for quiet. Colonel John Winslow, dressed and groomed for the occasioned, with a number of pieces of paper parchment before him and one in hand, then, spoke:

I shall come to describe this in greater detail under the Deportation at Chignecto; but, what should be generally known of the Chignecto deportation, was, that, the Acadians at Chignecto were to resist the English as they did in no other place. The Acadians at Chignecto, being for most of its history located well away from English soldiers, were the most independent of all Acadians. There, too, at Chignecto, could be found regular French military officers, such as Boishébert, who, despite the Fall of Fort Beauséjour, were able to keep pressure on the English and generally lead the resistance. One example of this was, where, on August 28th, an English officer, Major Frye, together with 200 New Englanders had been sent to destroy the villages of "Chipody, Memweamcook & Pitcondiack" and to bring in the inhabitants of those areas. He was surprised by a number of Acadians and in the ensuing fight Frye had 24 of his men killed.8 By September the 5th, it is likely that this news of the troubles at the isthmus would have come to Winslow's attention; and it undoubtedly unnerved him. The fact is that Windslow had under his charge near 500 Acadian men; and he had but 300 British soldiers to control them.9

Winslow was persuaded that "the government has not provided sufficient vessels."11 Further, he was of the view that what was to come was to come from Chignecto where Monckton was in charge. And further, Winslow was persuaded, that it was Monckton who was responsible for the delay, -- though, officer like, he made no direct statements to that effect.12 On August 31st, Winslow despatched Lt. Crooker in the "large whale boat" with despatches that had come up from Halifax and a letter from himself to Monckton: "I apprehend you have directions to supply us with ammunition of which we stand in present need ... let not flints & cartridges be forgotten ... [also] molasses."13 Within the week a vessel came in from Chignecto. The requested supplies were aboard, together with 50 men, presumably sent to reenforce Winslow. This was done, clearly on Governor Lawrence's orders, not because of any request made by Winslow. There was a letter delivered to Winslow by Monckton's commissary; it is telling that there was, at this time, no note from Monckton himself.

The differences between the characters of Murray and Winslow may well be perceived in the reading of the two short biographical sketches I have made. The correspondence between the two certainly show that Winslow, though conscious of his duty, was compassionate in the manner in which he carried it out. This conclusion is supported by all of his actions and is readily spotted in his writings, for example, in writing Murray on September 5th, "Things are now very heavy on my heart."15 Another example is to be had in his letter to Hinshelwood at Halifax, dated September 29th, 1755, "it hurts me to hear their weeping & waling and nashing of teeth, I am in hopes our affairs will soon put on another face and we get transports and I [am] rid of the worst peace of service ever I was in."16 Murray, on the other hand, treated the Acadians as a sub-species: "you know our soldiers hate them and if they can find a pretense to kill them, they will ... I long much to see the poor wretches embarked and our affair a little settled and then I will do myself the pleasure of meeting you and drinking your good voyage."17

I mentioned that Winslow experienced no trouble with his Acadians, and, generally, throughout all of this, that seemed to have been the case; though, there were a couple of times when he was obliged to tangle with his prisoners. The first time was to occur on September the 10th. Early on that day, there was a disturbance of which we have no details. This was to bring home once again to Winslow's mind the danger of keeping 500 men prisoners when all he had was but 300 men to do the job. He hardly had enough men to act as around-the-clock guards. Then, there was the business of sending out patrols to the surrounding areas to see if indeed all the Acadian men had responded to the order to come in, to verify counts and to check on the families. And, so too, at any given time there was a detachment of men out on courier service, either to Fort Edward, or Annapolis Royal, or off in the whale boat to Chignecto. As we have seen, the transport vessels that Governor Lawrence had arranged to come up from Boston had begun to arrive on August the 30th, three of them arrived: the Mary, the Endeavour and the Industry. The number was to come up to five, when, the Elizabeth came in on the 4th and the Leynord on the 6th. Now, when his concern about the trouble in camp was combined with the observation that he had five empty transports hanging on their rodes just at the mouth of the Gaspereau, a switch was thrown in Winslow's head. Why! He would, -- he would use these five vessels as floating prisons. These transports couldn't swallow up all the Acadian men that he had by then imprisoned; but, if he could get a couple of hundred of them onto the vessels, then, that would relieve his situation considerably.

Winslow called his officers together and informed them of his plans which he wished to carry out without delay on that day, the 10th. He would put fifty French men on each of the five transports. The youngest and strongest would be chosen. To bolster the crew of the vessels he would put aboard six soldiers on each. An armed vessel, the Warren (Capt. Adams) was also at the mouth of the Gaspereau River and it could act as a shepherd. The five transports and the Warren once loaded would then drop down into deeper water. The trick would be to get these men embarked.

At Grand Pré there was a sixty-five year old Acadian by the name of François Landry. He had a farm at la rivière des Habitants and had come, in response to the English order, to the church at Grand Pré with his sons, only to be captured there along with all the rest of the Acadian adult men. He was to become the spokesman for his fellows; this, mainly, I suppose, because he could speak English.18 Winslow sent for Landry on the morning of the 10th and he was soon standing before Winslow, likely with cap in hand. Winslow "told him the time was come for part of the inhabitants to embark and that the number concluded for this day was 250 and that we should begin with the young men and desired he would inform his brethren of it." Landry was, as Winslow explains, "greatly surprised." Winslow responded, "it must be done." Landry was to get the Acadian men lined up in the yard six deep with the young men to the left. Winslow then told Landry that there was not much time as the transports would be pulled up at high tide, -- they had but an hour to get themselves ready. Now, it seems clear that Winslow did not tell Landry that he was taking this step for security reasons, seemingly not wanting to give the Acadians any idea that they, the English, were at all concerned about their position; for, every one in the camp and soon the women outside the camp came to the idea that the men were to be shipped away as a separate lot.19 This belief on the part of the Acadians was to cause quite a scene.

All of Winslow's men, I would say a couple of hundred, were lined up with guns at the ready.20 The Acadians were assembled. The young Acadian men, as had been directed were to the left; they were separated out and a count was made: 141 of them. Captain Adams, with eighty men, was ordered to put them under guard and march them to the vessels. These young men were ordered to march. They were all possessed with the idea that they were to be torn from their families and sent away at once; and they all, in great excitement, refused to obey the marching order. These men did not want to be separated from their fathers who were then just opposite them and on the right. These young men continued to assert they would not move without their fathers. They responded in unison, No, no, -- they would not move. Winslow wanted most of all to avoid blood shed, and, knew that he must take the matter firmly into his hands for the sake of his own men and that of the prisoners. He dramatically stepped up and with firm resolve rudely grabbed a young French demonstrator. "I do not understand the word, "No" in the face of the king's command and shoved him with great force in the direction of the path they were to take. "There would be no parleys or delays." Winslow called out to his line of soldiers to advance with fixed bayonets. The young man picked himself up and started to move down the path, fearfully looking back over his shoulder; the rest followed, albeit slowly. They went off, as Winslow was to write in his diary, "praying, singing, and crying." The families of these men were stationed, it seems on route, one that extended for a mile and a half from the church to the bank of the river mouth. The women were inconsolable, thinking, as they did, that these dearly loved young men were to be taken away from them. They were there at stations, along the route, "in great lamentation, upon their knees, praying" with unallayed grief stamped on their faces.21

Maintaining the 250 men aboard the vessels might have proven to be a problem for the English, but a simple solution was struck upon; Winslow was to allow the Acadian women who were ashore to take care of their men aboard the ships. He would "permit them to have their familys and friends provide for them their victuals and dress it and send it on board." To accomplish this, the transports would move up once a day on the high tide near the shore, and -- well, Winslow explains:

On the 17th, Winslow was to write a long report to Governor Lawrence. In this report29, Winslow was to observe that the Acadians "were greatly struck" by the steps that he had taken (loading their men aboard the five transports on the 10th) and was to express his belief that "they [the Acadians] did not believe then nor to this day do I imagine that they are actually to be removed." He advises how he lets twenty men off the vessels, ten for each district of Grand Pré and Canards, in order for them to check on their families and to assist in the running of the mills so that all might be fed. The men to go were picked by the Acadians themselves and required to return in twenty-four hours, when the next twenty could immediately go for the next twenty-four hours. This system seem to work very well. Winslow then informs the governor of his disappointment that the greater number of the transports have yet to arrive, nor has the provision ship arrived which is meant to supply the transports. He hears that "Mr. Saul and the fleet" had arrived at Chignecto on August the 20th, "What's detained them I cannot tell." He then explains how he has employed "Fifty men a day for four days past to gather in the harvest to whom I ventured to promise pay, and the French women & boys assisted with their cattle to get in to the adjacent barns." The harvest, Winslow identifies as oats and wheat. He would have proceeded to start killing the cattle, except for the fact that these Acadians yet considered the cattle to be their property; he would wait on that until the Acadians have been shipped out.30 In any event, he has no salt for pickling purposes, "don't know where to find a peck of it in the country. Should be glad of a supply."31 Winslow continues, "Bread is the most essential thing we want for although we are surrounded with wheat yet can't obtain one bushel of meal as the streams that carry the water mills are low." The windmills, which apparently the Acadians had, as Winslow observed, grind slowly, and ground no more than that could be, and which apparently was, immediately consumed by the inhabitants. As for the party to be sent to Cobequid: it was to go off the next day, the 18th and was, in addition to Captain Lewis, to consist of 4 lieutenants, 5 sergeants, 4 corporals and 100 privates. This contingent was made up of an equal number of men from the Grand Pré camp and from Fort Edward, consistent with Lawrence's orders. Winslow then advised, however, that he was obliged to send up to Captain Murray at Fort Edward, in order to fill up his depleted ranks, an officer (Ensign Gay), a sergeant, a corporal and 30 privates. So, too, he has formed a party to go to the assistance of Major Handfield at Annapolis Royal: an officer (Lieutenant Peabody), two sergeants, a corporal and 35 privates. The Annapolis deputies, 27 of them, part of a larger group that had come up with Lewis from Halifax on the 15th were to go along with the detachment headed for Annapolis Royal.32 Then, Winslow, so as to fully make his point, explains how he has thirty of his men stationed on the transports, another thirty out gathering up cattle so that they can be sent to Halifax so to provision the royal navy, and, has ten men sick. And, concludes, "so that in fact I have only in my camp 158 non commissioned officers and private men to guard nearly twice their number, besides doing other duty, which makes things extremely heavy and I am not quite so easy in my present circumstances as I wish to be."